Digimon Genesis: Revenge of the Dragon
by the-magna-angel
Summary: In this special chapter, the digital humans meet up with a boy from the future named Devin, who may hold the key to the fate of the world . . .
1. Part I

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DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, and most likely, you don't either.

NOTE: This chapter is out of continuity of the main series. But I guess you could say that this event occurred in the two weeks that were never detailed in "Redemption of Ryota".

Hey! How are you? Well, please read and review all of the chapters! Your review counts!

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DIGIMON GENESIS  
SPECIAL CHAPTER

PART I

REVENGE OF THE DRAGON

"Takumi, I'll be with you in a moment."

Miss Andrews, clutching a pink envelope in her hand, left her loud, noisy classroom, where the students were trying to complete their Roman projects in History class, which were to be due on Monday.

Takumi sighed and put his elbow on the table, where a computer lay in front of him. It was the only computer at East Yokohama Middle School, where Takumi was being educated. The computer was password-protected, and only Miss Andrews and several other teachers, including the principal, Mrs. Falle, knew the code. This was an unfortunate thing for Takumi, which meant he would have to wait for his teacher to get back to type in the password.

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon, and he didn't feel like he should waste it by staring at a blank screen all day.

He looked around the room. Masami Okabe, a small boy with huge glasses, was having trouble gluing a picture of the Roman Coliseum to his paper, and after he completed the task, his hands were quite sticky. Yuuko Waterfield, the teacher's pet, was writing in perfect cursive the history of the Roman empire. Chiaki Bonanza, a heinous troublemaker and winner of the loudness competition, was flashing pictures of nude Roman goddesses, much to the amusement of the other boys, who howled with laughter.

"So then Satan steals that god's daughter, or something like that . . ." he was saying, flashing a picture of a goddess.

Yuuko looked up from her paper and brushed back her soft brown hair. "How many times do I have to tell you," she snapped, "that Satan and Hades aren't the same thing. Hades wasn't really evil . . ."

"I should have known," was the reply from the troublemaker. "Satan has a forked tail and a small, tiny bottom. But Hades -" he said, flashing a nude picture of the god of the dead from behind, "had a big, big -"

Takumi looked away from the other students and looked at the screen of the computer, which was completely black besides a large box where you would type in your log-in password.

"Stupid thing," he muttered. He played around with the keyboard, typing in various numbers and letters and such, but he could find no combination that was the password.

"I know," he later said to himself, grinning. "Satoshi." Miss Andrews had been the one who selected the password, and she had a gigantic crush on the gym teacher, Satoshi Akimoto. Whether he returned those feelings or not was anybody's guess.

He typed the word 'Satoshi' in and then pressed the ENTER button.

__

FLASH.

Takumi had successfully logged in to the computer.

"Yes!" he cried, grinning wildly.

He had surprised himself, he seldom grinned. Life for him, as well as five of his friends - Ryota, Miho, Naoki, Shun, and Yuka - was serious, and sometimes even scary. Life was a struggle, a struggle to be in control, a struggle for freedom.

They all had the powers to be transformed into Digimon - digital monsters who had immense power and special attacks. Any other student in Takumi's occupied classroom would kill for the change to transform into a fire-breathing monster, but to Takumi and his friends, it was no gift, it was rather a curse. They had been selected by four people of a sinister group called the Shadow Gang, whose identities were unknown, but they were endlessly searching for the people and their mission.

Helping him in his quest were his friends.

Ryota Surashi, a boy of Takumi's age who was educated under Mr. Katsumata, another teacher in the middle school, was a boy with many friends. Under the pressure of keeping his friends, he had always agreed with them and always had been "in the crowd" as some expressed it. But his true feelings came through when some kids had badmouthed Shun, another member of their group, and Ryota became Takumi's friend. He could transform into Kibamon, a Digimon of the ice element, who resembled a large snow leopard.

Naoki Reda was the proposed "leader" of Takumi's group (even though he was the youngest) and their mission - to track down any other digital humans, and to find the members of the Shadow Gang. He usually took charge and was the only one (at first) who could control his Digimon powers. He could transform into an ice wizard named Sorcerimon.

Miho Sugiyama was the oldest member of the group, sans Shun Oshiro. After having a bad year in eighth grade with Shun, she entered high school and was then diagnosed with the powers to transform into a Digimon. She could transform into Jikimon, a freakish plant Digimon.

Shun Oshiro was a plump boy of fourteen years of age. Although older than Miho, he still attends middle school due to a bad score on his exams. His real interest was not school, but art, and he wished to become an artist when he grew up - and in Takumi's opinion, he was a very good one. Due to a misunderstanding, Shun landed in juvenile hall, which fueled Takumi into trying to find the Shadow Gang. Shun could transform into a robot Digimon named Mekanorimon, who often expressed his feelings through hums and buzzes.

Yuka Hamada was a small girl of eight. Innocent, humble, and caring, she made a good companion for Naoki. And although she usually never showed it, she's usually the most stressed out of their group, due to her feelings for them. She could transform into a lightweight cat Digimon named Mikemon.

Takumi grabbed a small sheet of paper beside him, containing various notes on ancient Roman gods and goddesses. He was about to convert his illegible notes into fancy, legible font on a word processing program when the door to the classroom opened, and in stepped their teacher, Miss Andrews.

He gulped at the love-struck teacher strode toward him. If she found out that he had logged in and knew the password, then . . . well he didn't want to know what she had planned for him.

"Hello, Takumi," she said, brushing back her hair. "Sorry to keep you waiting."  
He tried his best to look puzzled. "You already logged me in, remember?" he reminded (or lied, both are fine).

"Oh yes," she said strangely, as though she had knew all along. "of course. Well, I'll leave you alone then, it's almost time to go . . ." She made her way back to her desk, but not before warning Chiaki that comparing her to a Titan was a personal offense and that if he did it again she would send him straight to the principal's office.

Takumi let out a sigh of relief. "Close shave," he muttered, as he began to type. A little later, he had not written one paragraph when the bell sounded.

"Darn," he said, exiting out of the program after saving his work. He then left the classroom, bidding good-bye to Miss Andrews, who was reading _Love and You_ at her desk.

The instant he left the room, he began to zoom out of the hallway. Two days - two days all to himself! The weekend had begun! Unfortunately for him, Mr. Mes, the ill-tempered janitor, was standing in the middle of the hall, serving no purpose but to yell at speeding student.

"'Scuse me!" he shouted, as Takumi rushed past him. "If 'yo goin' go runnin' round in the hallway, you has gotta have detention tomorrow - I mean Monday!"  
"Bye!" Takumi sang out, waving a sarcastic hand at the teeth-gritting janitor, meeting Ryota at the door.

"Jerk," his friend was muttering. "Giving us homework on a two-day weekend, doesn't he know any better?"

"Well, I have my Roman project to do," Takumi reminded him as they stepped outside, "a little homework is nothing compared to a big project. But I'm just about finished, anyway, just have to do a little typing on the computer."

"I'm writing mine long-hand," a voice spoke up. Takumi turned around to see the girl he liked, Reina Yoshida. She held a binder in her hand containing her Roman project. "I don't know about you, but I don't like computers." She smiled, dimples showing.

"They take a while to get used to," Takumi remarked, trying to continue the conversation, "but it takes a lot longer to write long-hand."  


"Is that why they call it long-hand?" Reina asked.

"Maybe," was the reply, and he was about to say more but had trouble keeping his balance as he almost fell down the stairs and crashed into several students in front of him.

"Well, I've got to go," Reina said, pointing out her bus. "See you on Monday, then."

"See you too, then," said Takumi, blushing. He had hardly noticed Ryota, who was behind him, and it took him a while (he was watching Reina clamber into her bus) to realize that he was talking to him.

"Takumi!"  


He zipped around as he realized where he was, and the school, as well as the voice, became more distinct, clear.

"Takumi, would you hurry up? We have to get on the bus! See, route sixteen is almost leaving . . . you don't want to stay here for two days, do you?"

He didn't reply, he only followed Ryota as they climbed into the bus and took their seats near the back. The front was far too noisy and crowded, full of loud kids who were a bit too excited about their break from school.

He sighed as he set his book bag beside him and waited, waited for a time that never seemed to end. Their new bus driver had missed several stops the day before, including Takumi's. Miss Dilect was on bus duty and was currently speaking to the driver. She was a short, blonde-haired woman with a voice like a squirrel and an amplifier like a siren, was teaching the bus driver where all the bus stops were.

"Don't stop at Winter Fields -" she advised him, "the replacement stop is Blaine Park ... it may be a bit farther, but as you may know, it seems a bit safer . . ."  


"We don't care, Miss Dilect!" a rat-like voice shouted. "Just stop at Winter Fields! Closer to my house!"

"Be quiet, Mr. Bando . . . now, remember to stop at Shady Springs . . . that's the one you missed last time, from what I hear."  


"Right," said the bus driver, an old man, who, unlike the other bus driver, looked patient and pleasant.

The engines of the old bus started, and, after half running over Miss Dilect, finally exited from the school. Ryota was the one who noticed that they were the last bus which had left.

"I hope this old, stupid driver doesn't miss our stop again," he grunted. "I don't want to end up halfway back to the school, him not realizing that there was still us on." He dropped his book bag from off his shoulders and soon settled down in his seat.

Moments passed, the bus passing through several stores and shopping centers. Soon the bus would be entering Takumi and Ryota's neighborhood. The wind blew. The sky looked peaceful, there was no thundercloud in sight. Everything was normal.

But not for long.

The bus turned into the neighborhood where Takumi had grew up in - where he lived - where Ryota lived - where Hiroshi Watanabe, the boy who had made fun of Takumi, had been brutally murdered - where Mr. Felters, an old friend of Mrs. Hito, had been severely burned - and frozen.

It was at that moment when the strange thing happened.

* * *

About fifteen miles away, on a lonely sidewalk, was a boy. He had a shock of red hair, and a huge scar which cut through his cheek. People passed him on the streets, staring. But it was not the face they were staring at. It was his clothes. They seemed quite out of the ordinary. Upon first glance, they seemed normal - blue jeans, and a yellow shirt. But it was made out of some sort of strange cloth - like some sort of future clothing. And that's what they were. But he never told them. He also didn't tell them about the blue device with lightning bolts at the side, which he stored in his futuristic belt. In fact, he hadn't spoken at all today. He was too filled with wonder. The town, to him, seemed to be some sort of treat. This boy's name was Devin Marsukii.

At around the time Takumi's bus turned into his neighborhood, Devin heard a familiar sort of sound - merry music. He knew this sound; he tried to remember: when he was very little. Yes, he now knew what the sound was. An ice cream truck.

As it smoked down the lonely road at a very slow rate, Devin jumped at the side of it and held out some money from his pocket.

The driver stopped upon seeing this opportunity, then rolled down his window.

"Yeah, kid?" he asked. He had light brown hair and an impatient look in his eyes, possibly from getting orders from too many little kids who demanded ice cream. This was one reason, but another was the fact that he felt like an idiot, driving through town in a big truck with a hundred pounds of ice cream in his trunk, playing merry music that sounded - well - _gay._

Devin didn't mind though. He was full of nostalgia from his past, on his street, waving and shouting for the ice cream truck to come by. When he was younger, he had made good friends with the ice cream man. But he couldn't help notice that this one didn't have the same sort of cheery face that the other one had. Still, he smiled politely at the man, and was probably the only one in town who was at least _trying_ to be polite to him. It was a hard job being ice cream man, and the impatient driver, who they called "Fudge Man", was really named Komatsuzaki.

"Do you have cherry chocolate bars in stock?" he asked politely.

The man looked at a clipboard beside him. "Don't know what the hell - I mean, heck - you're talking about, kid. There ain't no such thing. Now, do you want real ice cream, or do you want to just go home? Do you even have money?"  


"Yes, I have money," the boy said, flashing his bill. "Here, I'll settle for a normal fudge bar. How much will that be?"

"Two hundred and sixty yen."  


At these words, Devin felt embarrassed and shocked.

"Oh," he said, blushing. "Well," (he flashed the bills again) "this is all I have. Will this do?" He handed "Fudge Man" the money, then looked up at the window hopefully.

"The hell is this?" said Komatsuzaki, surveying the money with nothing but impatience. "Is this some sort of foreign money?"  


"Um, no," said Devin. "It's Japanese market. It says so on the - uh, bill."

"Kid," said the driver, throwing the money out the window, "I don't have time for games. You're making your own sort of money, and let me tell you something - it's counterfeit, and I could get you arrested for passing that sort of stuff around. Not that anyone will a right mind would fall for it, of course. But I make _real_ money. Get my drift, kid? Hell, I've been up since eight 'o clock in the morning, getting ready for my job, then I have to come down here and do my business as a damn fudge man. You're wasting my time, kid. Good day!" With these strong words, he closed the window and sped away, leaving Devin to pick up his "counterfeit" money in a cloud of dust.

"Well!" he exclaimed, picking up the last bill and dusting off his pants. "That sure wasn't very nice. But I've got a lot of things to get used to, here. I should have learned all of this in history class, but I never did pay attention. Darn! Well, I guess I'll just have to learn some more."

He put the bills in his pocket and strode down the sidewalk, as casual as someone (well, someone like Devin Marsukii) could be. When suddenly -

"ARGH!"

A loud, terrifying scream filled the air. It came from the red-haired boy, Devin. A surging pain had stroke him in the forehead, and he felt as though his head would split in two. He felt his whole body give way, and felt something enter it.

"**NOW!" **something screamed.

"No!" Devin screamed back. "No! Not now! No! You can't - you can't -"

"**IT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED!" **boomed a voice from somewhere near him.

Devin's heart stopped beating, but he was still alive. As this happened, he still screamed - until finally, the pain left. His heart started beating again. He opened his eyes. He had closed them when he had felt that surging sort of pain.

If one had been watching him, someone would have noticed something remarkably different about his eyes. They seemed cold and sneering.

But no one had been watching him. But many people had heard the scream, and found it horrifying. But afterwards, they dismissed it from their thoughts. Devin Marsukii was not seen in the area after that sharp scream. But no one knew him. He hadn't had any parents or other relatives to take care of him.

In fact, Devin Marsukii was not even born.

* * *

The scream could not be heard where Takumi was now - inside of the bus. It crept up long, winding roads, through the neighborhood, when something happened unexpectedly.

__

BEEP.

Takumi almost jumped. He had heard that sound before. It was his D-Monster. He grabbed it. What could it be? News on the Shadow Gang? A new Digimon appearing? Would they have to defeat it?

He grabbed the device, which was inside of his book bag. If it had beeped during class, it would be silenced. His D-Monster was the color of red, which suited Takumi just fine, it was his favorite color. He turned the device on. The familiar LCD screen looked back at him, but something was different. His D-Monster digivice had intercepted a message. But from whom? He read the message aloud, after making sure that no one was around, like Bando:  
  
**"YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED TO THE GAME."**

Takumi had realized that both he and Ryota had read the message aloud, and it was displayed on both their D-Monsters.

"I guess we've both been invited," Ryota remarked. Takumi was going to ask what exactly they were going to be invited to, when suddenly . . .

A vortex LCD appeared on their D-Monsters. When it began to suck them in . . .

"What's happening!?" Takumi shouted, but could receive no answer, because both he and Ryota were spinning, spinning, faster and faster. Then, in a matter of seconds, they vanished from the bus.

The old bus driver then stopped and opened the doors, waiting for kids to get out. But only one student did.

"Wha in the world?" the old driver exclaimed, scratching his head and watching the one boy step out onto the platform.

* * *

"Ugh."

That was the word uttered from Takumi. Gradually, his eyes opened, and wherever he was focused into view. He stared in front of him. It was very dark outside. Up, on a high hill, stood a large, intimidating castle. And walking up the path to the mansion were - _Digimon. _Hundreds of Digimon.

He sprang to his feet. He was ready to fight them all. He noticed Ryota at his side, his D-Monster out as well, both ready to transform. It was a strange scene. The many Digimon entered the castle, without destroying anything. This surprised Takumi, for the Digimon he fought liked to fight each other to the death and destroy things in the process. Well, at least when they weren't controlled. Could it be that all of these Digimon were humans that could control themselves? Perhaps this was where the Shadow Gang lived?

"What is this place?" Ryota asked, apparently with no expectation for an answer - but one came.

"So, you've been invited too?" said a high, squeaky voice. Both humans jumped and turned around at the same time, their D-Monsters in a threatening position. They expected to find a large, powerful Digimon behind them. They did find a Digimon. But it certainly wasn't large. And it didn't look too powerful.

"Hello," the squeaky Digimon greeted. It looked like a blue tadpole with a long tail. "My name is Otamamon."  


"Otamamon?" Takumi said blankly. "Well . . . what's your _real _name?"  


The Digimon looked a bit flattered. "That _is _my real name."  


"You mean, you're not a human?"

The tadpole Digimon shook it's head. "No. I've never seen a human before. Well, besides those others that I just saw . . ."  
"What other humans!?"  
"There was a small boy . . . another boy, a girl, and a short girl . . ." Otamamon shrugged, best it could, not having any shoulders, and all.

"Looks like they've been invited to whatever this thing is!" Takumi exclaimed. "Come on, let's go!"  
"Who's been invited?" the Otamamon asked curiously.

"Gotta run!" Takumi shouted back as he ran off in the distance, towards the castle. "Thanks, Otamamon!"

He passed through a gruff-looking Digimon with two faces and a long sword, then past a fish with boxing gloves who was floating in the air, and had to apologize for bumping into a winged serpent with a skull on it's head. Past them, he saw a humanoid figure. He recognized it.

"Yuka!" he shouted.

The humanoid figure turned around. Takumi jumped back upon seeing his mistake. Staring back at him was a female angel Digimon with large wings and an arrow in her hand. She wore a thick helmet over her head, so he couldn't see her eyes.

"Sorry?" she asked, holding her bow in a way that made Takumi jump.

"Um . . . never mind. I thought you were someone else." He dashed past her, then saw all of them: Shun, Naoki, Miho, and Yuka.

"Hey!" Shun said, turning around and seeing Takumi. "You've been invited, too." And, upon seeing Ryota, he added, "Hey, and you too!"

Ryota shrugged.

"I wonder what this whole thing is about?" Miho wondered, a sort of impatient tone in her voice. "I mean, _please._ I was just about to get home when I get transported here. I'm going to have to miss my haircut."  
"Oh, please," Shun rolled his eyes. "I think this will be fun. It's about time we interact with Digimon who _aren't _humans."  
"Oh, what do you know, 'F-boy'?" Miho shrugged.

"I agree with Shun," Yuka said warmly. "This will be fun." Miho groaned at these words.

"We've already met some very nice Digimon," Naoki spoke up. Using his clear green D-Monster, he transformed into Sorcerimon, then spoke to a humanoid Digimon that looked quite like him.

"See?" Naoki grinned. "Meet Wizardmon."

"How do," Wizardmon let out his hands for Takumi to shake it, when -

__

BUZZAP!

"Hahaha!" Wizardmon laughed merrily. "My Magical Game worked again! So much fun!"

Takumi's hand had been fried. "Yeah. Whatever."

"Oh, and here's Angewomon," Yuka added, addressing the female angel Digimon which Takumi had seen before. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"  
"Now, really," Angewomon blushed. "But I guess I do look better than some Digimon here. Like that Lillymon I just saw passing by. Can you believe it? She's dying the bulb of her head _yellow_. Such a disgraceful color! I've already told her that I like it just fine the way she is, but she appears to be doing it for that Zudomon over there." She pointed to a turtle-like Digimon. "Now, I don't like men because they're strong, I take appearance, personality . . ."

The Angewomon babbled on.

Some other Digimon were gossiping in a corner.

"I hear we're invited to some sort of tournament," remarked a bird Digimon with a crown on his head. "That'd be nice! I'd love to use my new attack that I just learned."

A female Digimon, Blossomon, seemed to disagree. "You're not going to use that - that - Royal Smasher thing, are you?"  
"Yep!"  
"Oh no, Deramon, please, I don't want to be made a fool of . . ."

Naoki grinned. "You know your D-Monster device? Well, you can look up data on _all _these Digimon!"  


"_All _of them?" Ryota asked, interested, and very much excited.

Looking up data for numerous Digimon was very fun for Takumi. He scanned data for Geremon, Muchomon, Thunderballmon, Baromon, Musyamon, Airdramon, Gekomon, and a dinosaur Digimon that he was very interested in, Allomon. By speaking to a Mamemon that he later scanned, he learned that Digimon were divided into six levels: Fresh, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. He learned that the Digimon he could transform into, Hiamon, was at the champion level, as well as Sorcerimon, Jikimon, Mikemon, Kibamon, and Mekanorimon. He wondered if he would ever digivolve. He learned about digivolution by speaking to a Centarumon in the corner.

"Well, it takes a long time for a rookie to evolve into a champion, but you have to win a certain number of battles to go to the ultimate level, but the way you told me, it could be different . . ."

Takumi was just talking to a Digimon who introduced himself as AeroVeedramon, who claimed he won every battle he fought, when suddenly a voice was heard over a megaphone.

"Ladies and gentlemon! It's time to begin! You are all invited to a grand tournament, to determine who is the strongest Digimon out of all of you!"  
Cheers were heard from the crowd. Obviously, the Digimon there loved battles, and especially loved tournaments.

"Is Tyranomon invited?" Allomon asked curiously, sniffing around. "I do hope not. Losing battles against him all the time, it is dreadful!"

The voice over the megaphone continued: "Please, all gather round in the Great Hall, where we will begin selecting the battles. All battles will take place in the Grand Coliseum, which is to the stairwell to the left of the Great Hall. There will be five battles taking place at once! The tournament will start at star thirty! Thank you, and enjoy the tournament!"  


Allomon smiled (_was _he smiling? Was there any way to hide those great teeth of his?) brightly. "That must mean I am stronger than Tyranomon, for it doesn't look like he was invited. Har har har!"

Takumi was a bit curious over the Digimon's way of telling time. He asked Allomon what time star thirty was, whatever that was, but the dinosaur Digimon seemed to busy roaring shouts of victory. So he asked another dinosaur Digimon, Stegomon, what time it would be when the tournament started.

"Look at the sky," the wise Stegomon said. Takumi looked up. It was extremely dark. The stars were coming out. "When there are thirty stars visible in the sky, the tournament shall begin," Stegomon explained. "Good luck to you."  


Takumi thanked him, then left to tell his human friends. Just after he had finished talking to them, a scuttling of feet came. He looked up at the stars. He tried to count them, and ended up with twenty-nine, but a second time proved him wrong, there was thirty in the sky. The tournament was to begin now!

Takumi, Ryota, Shun, Naoki, Miho, and Yuka hastened into the castle, being pushed by many large Digimon along the way. They decided to transform so they would be treated with more respect. Hiamon, Kibamon, Mekanorimon, Sorcerimon, and Mikemon replaced them, and they felt more "in the crowd" in their Digimon modes. They entered the large castle without much trouble, where numerous Digimon were surrounding three large desks, each occupied by a Digimon: one carried a Salamon, one's owner was a Veemon, and the remaining one held a Monodramon.

To their surprise, everything was already sorted out. They all received charts which showed them who they were going to battle first.

"I'm battling Otamamon first," said Hiamon brightly.

"That little Digimon that we met at the gates?" Kibamon asked, looking at his paper.

"That's the one."  


"Well, I'm up against Gururumon."  


"I'm up against Wizardmon!" Sorcerimon cheered.

"Deramon," said Jikimon, looking glum.

"I'm against Doggymon," said Mikemon happily.

"BUZZ," said Mekanorimon in wonder.

"Hey, look at this," said Hiamon, staring at his sheet as they entered the gigantic coliseum on the left. "I'm one of the first five that will be battling."  


"BUZZ?" Mekanorimon looked interested. "BUZZ. BUZZ."

"Well, I don't," Hiamon grinned. "But I hope Otamamon is prepared!"  


Kibamon scoffed. "I wouldn't be so sure of yourself." He leaned against a pillar. The coliseum resembled that of an ancient one. "I mean, you don't know how powerful a natural Digimon is. We've never faced one."  
"You have a point there," Hiamon agreed, scratching his dragon chin, but an instant later, he jumped up, his claws raised, and yelled:  
"Well, I love a challenge!"

Once everyone had been sorted out and had entered the coliseum, a scratchy voice sounded through the megaphone:  
"And now, ladies and gentlemon! The tournament of the ciencircle! The battle of the milturn! It's -

THE STRONGEST DIGIMON TOURNAMENT!"

The crowd cheered, but a Seadramon nearby, who looked at the person with the megaphone, a red reptile Digimon, said, "Please, can we get an announcer without speech impediment?"  
The Guilmon continued his talk:  
"And now, our first battle . . . Hiamon . . . versus . . . Otamamon!"  
Hiamon flew to the ring, and (with difficulty, considering his little legs) Otamamon made it to the battle scene as well.

"Everyone knows the rules, don't you?" asked the Guilmon. "Battle and absorb! And . . . five . . . three . . . two . . . four . . . one! Go!"

"Stun Bubble!" Otamamon shouted. A bubble was emitted from his mouth, which floated across the ring.

Hiamon flew into the air, then met the bubble with a nosedive. In an instant, the bubble disappeared. Hiamon picked up speed, then hit the Otamamon with a hard hit. POW! The Otamamon disappeared in a cloud of dust. Eventually, the dust left, leaving a wounded Otamamon on the floor.

"Ooh, Otamamon is down!" Guilmon the announcer shouted, "but is he dead? No!" Otamamon slowly got up to it's normal position, a scar on the side of it's head.

Something went through Hiamon the dragon when he heard those words. _But is he dead?_ Did all the people in the coliseum _expect _him to kill Otamamon? He had committed murder to a human before, but that was when he couldn't control his own power . . . killing someone intentionally, Digimon or not, was a sinful thing.

"Stun Bubble!" the cute tadpole shouted. The same bubble that had appeared before came. Came . . . hit Hiamon . . . then popped. Hiamon didn't make any attempt to counter the attack. He didn't know what to do . . . he didn't want to kill Otamamon.

"Stun Bubble!" the tadpole shouted again, for the whole coliseum to hear. Again, the bubble popped when it hit the dragon Digimon. It didn't even make a mark. It did nothing at all.

Stun Bubble after Stun Bubble after Stun Bubble came . . . and went. Until Hiamon's battle had been about twenty minutes long. The crowd was already shouting for Hiamon to finish it, but he did no such thing.

"Come on, Hiamon, you've got to beat that Otamamon, kill it, and absorb it, or this battle will go on forever!" Guilmon shouted. This Guilmon loved battles. He also enjoyed seeing how other Digimon met their match and died, and then were absorbed by the stronger one. He himself believed in the dog-eat-dog theory, and played a small role in it. He loved seeing the battles even more than his boss, who was in his room in the castle. His boss would normally have enjoyed watching the tournament, as he attended Digimon tournaments on a regular basis. However, tonight, duty called. Suddenly, a telephone rang from within the Guilmon's office.

"Yes?" the reptile asked to the receiver. "Okay . . . you'll check on the tournament every twenty minutes, right - no Hiamon hasn't won yet . . . he's just taking his time . . . no sir, I don't think you - yes sir, of course, yes sir. Whatever you'd like sir, you see I . . . oh, he hung up." The Guilmon tried to put the phone down, but apparently it was stuck between his claws.

CRASH.

Hiamon felt dust from the ceiling fall on him as another bubble hit him in the chest, doing no damage whatsoever. But what really caught his attention was the ceiling. The Otamamon was interested too, as well as the monsters in the stands.

CRASH.

The sound came a second time. Part of the ceiling collapsed, leaving a hole wide enough for a Digimon to fall through. And something did fall through. But it wasn't a Digimon. It was a human, with a shock of red hair and a scar on his cheek. The boy landed between Otamamon and Hiamon, amazingly not getting hurt in the fall.

"What's all this, what's all this?" he asked.

Hiamon was surprised. Was he a digital human as well? "Who are you?" he asked.

"Who am I?" the boy sniffed. "I'm the master of this tournament, for your information. Now tell me this - why aren't you killing that Otamamon? You know you can, and yet you're not doing it! If you don't kill it, I'm going to have to disqualify you!"  


Hiamon sneered. He didn't care if he was disqualified. He only wanted the Otamamon to be spared. "Go ahead," said the dragon Digimon. "Disqualify me."  


But the boy seemed to read Hiamon's mind. "If you care about the Otamamon, that wouldn't be a good idea. You see - if you don't kill the Otamamon, someone else will." The red-head narrowed his menacing eyes. "Like me. Will _I _be a better opponent?" He looked back at the pitiful Otamamon.

"Don't touch it!" Hiamon ordered.

"I'm sorry, but I'm the master of this tournament, and I can do what I want."

"Oh yeah?" Hiamon breathed. "Do you want to take this outside?"  


The boy smiled evilly. "As you wish." He held out a device from his belt. 

__

A D-Monster, Hiamon gasped. It was blue, with lightning bolts at the tips.

"TRANSFORM!" the boy shouted. He began to glow a denim blue, then transformed to - "ExLightningmon!"

The Digimon which replaced the human resembled a dragon, except he was yellow and his ears were in the shape of lightning bolts. A lightning bolt mark also appeared on his forehead. A large horn was on his nose. His claws, his red eyes, and especially his teeth - looked menacing.

He jumped from the area of which he was standing, his wings the color of snow, his claws out. Hiamon jumped too, and it was hard to tell which one looked more threatening. But ExLightningmon was too quick. He grabbed the large horn on Hiamon's head and yanked him upside-down. Hiamon opened his eyes, feeling dizzy. He could feel himself being lifted; lifted out of the arena, over the collapsed ceiling - and then he felt his horn being free from ExLightningmon's bitter hands. He then felt his whole body crash against the remainder of the ceiling. He fell to the floor of the arena with a loud _PLOP._

"Whoa!" shouted the Guilmon with the megaphone. "Wow! Has the boss killed him? It sure looks like it!"  


"No," Hiamon breathed. "No. I'm not dead. Not yet." And then he heard someone - or _something_ - plop down beside him.

"Now now," the thing said threateningly. It was ExLightningmon. "This battle has gone on far too long. It's time - that I finished you!"  


Hiamon covered his eyes, which probably looked rather stupid, for no one was trying to kill him. He heard a high-pitched squeak of pain, then bits of data dissolving. He opened his eyes, then sat up in horror at the scene.

ExLightningmon had killed the Otamamon. He could still hear the high-pitched scream in his ears, even when the data was floating in the air. But the data wasn't floating for long.

"Now," said the evil dragon Digimon, puffing out his chest. The data began to enter it. "To gain the power I deserve!" After all the little bits of data had entered his body, he began to glow.

"What's going on?" Hiamon asked himself.

"Wow!" yelled the Guilmon with the megaphone. "It seems that the boss is digivolving 

to his ultimate form!"

"No!" Hiamon shouted, the ones in the stands gasped in wonder. The glowing Digimon grew bigger and bigger . . .

"ExLightningmon . . . DIGIVOLVE TO . . . Lightningdramon!" The replacement, a large, hulking ultimate Digimon, was much bigger, and looked much different. Hiamon had witnessed his first digivolution. Lightningdramon was a large, yellow dragon, with red, dangerous-looking wings. His claws were long and thin, and a thick, brown skull with three horns covered his head.

"RAGHHH!" it roared. The big Digimon was almost the size of the ring itself. "Now," it said, in a loud, gravelly voice, "the real battle begins."  
  
_Next time on Digimon Genesis Special Chapter!  
Lightningdramon has Hiamon on the ropes, much to the amusement of the crowd of Digimon at the stadium. The digital humans team up to defeat this terror, only to find out that the boy is not the real enemy! Surprises and more on the next Digimon Genesis Special Chapter, Part 2!  
  
And . . . stay tuned for Chapter 17 of Digimon Genesis, coming soon! Takumi and Ryota hunt for clues as to who the Shadow Gang is and try to investigate more on Mr. Mes and his mysterious boss! Meanwhile, Shun is hidden away in Takumi's house! Will the Shadow Gang be discovered! Hopefully, but doubtfully! Will Shun be found? Hopefully not, but probably! And what of the strange potion, and the fox Digimon? Clues and hints to the identities of the Shadow Gang members and much, much more in Chapter 17 of Digimon Genesis: LOVE POTION. COMING AUGUST, 2002._


	2. Part II

****

DIGIMON GENESIS  
SPECIAL CHAPTER

REVENGE OF THE DRAGON  
PART II

Hiamon gasped in horror at the intimidating figure standing before him. A while ago, they seemed like an even match, but now the figure had grown much bigger - he had evolved to a more powerful state than before.

Lightningdramon, the digivolved form of ExLightningmon.

The opponent seemed to know of his terrifying state, and seemed to enjoy watching Hiamon sitting there, horrified.

"Surprised, monster?" the dragon monster asked his great wings flapping in the light of the stadium. "Don't tell me you haven't ever heard about digivolution."  
Takumi had heard about digivolution; heard it from the monsters outside, but this had not been what he had expected. He expected them to remain the same form, but just be a bit more powerful. An increase in ferocity and power was overwhelming. How could he defeat this beast?!  
"I like this new form," commented Lightningdramon, happy at his rather devilish body. "Why, I bet even you couldn't beat me in a battle."

Hiamon stood upright, terrified. Was he really inviting him to a battle? He shivered at the thought, but courage was not without him. He stood straight now, standing tall, looking up at the figure before him, who was now flying around the stadium, to the crowd's amusement. They applauded him, the hungry beast, as though he were a star player in a football game, arriving on the field.

Hiamon, feeling quite stupid, raised his clawed fist and shouted:  
"Hey! You! I can take you on any time. Give me what you got." He slammed his fists together testily, which provoked the flying dragon in a way like no other.

Lightningdramon snickered. He paused in mid-air and meters away he confronted his opponent. He let himself float, flapping his wings slowly, to monstrous (pun intended) applause.

"Fine then," the beast replied, and Hiamon noticed his voice was more scratchy, more beastly.

Hiamon flew to Lightningdramon's height, his fists out, in case his enemy caught him in surprise. He did. Before he could realize what was happening, the dragon performed a terrible nose-dive, letting the air around him part, and hit Hiamon hard in the chest. He fell to the stadium floor with a thud, a thud that shook the whole coliseum.

Cheers from the crowd.

The Guilmon at the megaphone was now ballistic. "And Hiamon is down - but is he out? A fantastic nose-dive, master Lightningdramon!"  
The digital human grinned, showing his gigantic teeth to the stadium.

Hiamon had landed on his back, but he was sure that every bone in his dragon-like body was broken. Dust had gathered to where he had landed, for the surprise attack had took him down with such a hard force it had made a small crater on the stadium floor.

He brushed away the dust and blood and stood up slowly, as though it was but a scrape on his knee. He tried his best to look professional, as though the dirty trick was but an inferior move.

He tried his best to chuckle, to laugh in Lightningdramon's face as to make him appear dumb, but he could not due to the fact that he had been so surprised, but had it not been common sense to the rescue, he would have imagined that his vocal cords had been knocked down into his stomach.

"No, he's still alive!" the Guilmon cheered. His commentary was unneeded, but it seemed to add a bit of excitement in everyone in the tournament. "This battle could be one of the best I've seen in all my years as announcer - one year!"

Lightningdramon didn't seem mad that Hiamon was still alive; quite the contrary: he looked smug, as though a longer battle was something he craved for.

Hiamon stretched his orange wings and found the confidence to speak. He knew it was impossible to beat him, he knew it from the one hit he had received.

"My turn!" he shouted triumphantly, as though he knew he had a killer move up his sleeve - but he had none, just like he had no confidence. Confidence was important; he knew that, but he couldn't find it, not even in his beastly heart.

He flew to a higher height that Lightningdramon, then shouted:  
"Flame Rain!"

From the holes in his [small (compared to Lightningdramon's] wings came little flares. They came from him like rain.

Lightningdramon balled his fists, starting intently at the flares that were nearing him.

"YAH!"

He punched at seven flares with his gigantic, powerful fists, then spun around, and did a tornado kick on another.

Hiamon zoomed down on Lightningdramon like a bullet, gathering speed. He hoped that the fireballs would distract him, leaving him vulnerable to a nose-dive from him. Unfortunately, his plan backfired - _literally._ The flares he had sent flew like magic back at him, hitting him hard in the face. Because of the high speed he was going, the flames were harder and more deadly. One flare hit him in the eye, which sent him hurling down, but he managed to float above the ground for a few seconds, before finally landing on two feet, his arms in the air in a threatening position.

He was temporarily blinded due to the impact of the fireball, but he had perseverance, he kept on, trying his best to make it seem as though the hit had done no damage. But in his eyes, it stung, and he felt like crying. His right eye, the one that had been hit, twitched involuntarily.

The Guilmon at the microphone could barely speak he was so thrilled. "Another devastating counter attack from the boss! I mean, Lightningdramon! Good hit, sir!"

Lightningdramon nodded, grinning from head to toe. He loved battling; he loved thrilling the crowd and astonishing them with his incredible feats. He also loved to see the opponent, half-dead and helpless as a cat in a tree.

Hiamon breathed angrily. He wanted to punch the Guilmon announcer, he wanted to blind the crowd. He didn't want to be seen like this, nor compliments given to his opponent for the miraculous beating he was giving him.

Suddenly an idea came to him! His Triple Dragon Talon attack. With his claws in front of him during a nose-dive, he could block any fireballs that came his way.

His wings stretched out, his eye no longer twitched. He felt confident, and confidence was a key to victory. He flew to the top of the stadium, then using the hole that the digital human had made as an entrance in the ceiling, flew out of it completely.

"That's not fair!" the reptile Digimon at the microphone announced. "You can't fly out of the stadium during the battle. This Digimon is disquali -"

"Oh, shut your hole!" Lightningdramon shouted, still staring at the speck in the sky that was Hiamon. "I want to see what he does."  
At this, the crowd, who had been supporting the announcer's comments, as well as the Guilmon himself, fell quiet.

"Flame Rain!" came a small whisper from the sky. Fireballs came from Hiamon's wings. Lightningdramon squinted into the distance and could make out tiny red flares. The Guilmon noticed this too.

"Look's like he's doing another Flame Rain attack, Sir!"

"Do you _think _I don't know that?" Lightningdramon shouted back at him. "Now shut up! We don't need your commentary."

The Guilmon, ashamed of being a failure to his boss, put the microphone away and stared hungrily at the battle.

The flares from Hiamon's Flame Rain attack entered the stadium, receiving "oohs" and "ahhs" from the crowd.

"Triple Dragon Talon!" some more words were uttered from the dragon in the sky, but none heard him, for they were watching the raining flames, which were descending on Lightningdramon with high speed and equal ferocity.

Lightningdramon repeated the steps he did the last time, this time with a more impressive assortment of tricks: he punched at several of them, half-kicked, half-flipped another three, then head-butted another flame back at Hiamon - who was charging at full speed at the lightning dragon, claws out, head low, in a spectacular nose-dive.

The flames came at the dragon Digimon, but he simply stretched his fine claws and easily avoided the counter attack from Lightningdramon. The fire bounced off his iron fists and went right back at his opponent, who gasped in shock and surprise. The flames fell upon him, Lightningdramon screamed in pain, but the deadly impact from the heat dragon, Takumi, was yet to come. He came full speed, his claws ripping through Lightningdramon's flesh, which was already burned from the Flame Rain attack. Another scream of pain, this time louder and higher, came from the lightning dragon. The crowd watched with interest at the battle, watched Hiamon's opponent fall onto the tournament floor, watched the dust that rose from the impact, and watched the victor, Hiamon, breathing in exhaustion from the attack combo.

"Yeah, Hiamon!" shouted Naoki from the crowd, who looked as though he had bit his fingernails off in suspense. "You beat him!"  
"Oh, and the boss is - is he?" the Guilmon received no answer to the crowd, he had forgotten he had turned off the microphone.

There was a movement from the wrecked floor. Lightningdramon stood up from the debris, breathing harshly at Hiamon, who was breathing in tiredness. "Of course I'm not, you oaf!" he shouted to the Guilmon, to the whole crowd. "I'd also like to note that the battle is not officially over until one of us dies. So shut your holes, all of you!" He stared around at the crowd, who was a bit nervous, possibly afraid that Lightningdramon might kill them all if they talked. Turning to the exhausted Hiamon, the lightning dragon simply said:  
"I hope you're happy with yourself. That double attack combo was a clever move, I'll admit. But _two_ attack techniques! Think of how much energy you are using up in one move. You have simply left me with a burn mark and a deep scar on my chest. I'll bet you're pooped now, am I right?"

Hiamon couldn't reply. He kept panting, he felt like he had just run 100 miles at top speed without stopping to breath. In gym class, he usually used that remark to his peers, but it was incredibly exaggerated. Now, he really did feel like it.

"I have not used a single power technique on you," the evil dragon remarked, his eyes flashing maliciously. "But if you're ready to go into _that_ kind of battle, it is fine with me. We don't need to _bore_ our audience with petty kicks and punches, now, do we? I prefer my battles to be nice and _fast_." He held up a reptilian fist, to which the crowd roared with support.

With the help from the audience, he flew to the top of the stadium, where he was now level with Hiamon, who was still breathing heavily and felt as though he may collapse at any minute.

The yellow dragon grinned. "Still tired, eh, Hiamon?" He chuckled. "Well, don't worry." His voice was cold and harsh, and sneering. "I'll put you out of your misery." He flew higher now, over the ceiling and out of the stadium into the dark clouds above. The sky appeared to be his element. He gazed upward at the ill-colored stratus cloud and rose his hands to it, as though reaching.

Hiamon knew he didn't have the strength to look up, but he did anyway. Lightningdramon appeared to be concentrating, his hands were going back and forth, as though rubbing something like a ball was in his hands. A buzzing sound from deep in his palms seemed to satisfy him. Now that he was ready, he cried out:  
"Bullet Rain!"

Hiamon gasped. He now clearly could see that he had been focusing an energy ball. The cloud up ahead of him was sparking wildly, as though something had been drained from it.

Lightningdramon held the electricity ball to his chest and breathed on it, then threw it in the air. He caught it back in his hands, then stretched it from the edge of his chest to the other. He breathed, and suddenly the electricity disappeared.

Hiamon kept watching. Had the attack backfired? He didn't know, he didn't care. All he wanted was a place to sit down, to rest. If only his combination attack had finished his opponent! _His _attack was the one that backfired. It had merely finished _him_.

But Lightningdramon showed no signs that the attack had stopped. The electricity had disappeared; but his wings were glowing, flapping. Then the glowing stopped; the flapping came to an end. The yellow lizard spun around several times, until he was but a golden cyclone. Then the dragon found his target - _Hiamon_. He curved downwards, then narrowed his eyes - wherever they were inside the cyclone. He was picking up speed, then suddenly he slowed down, and Takumi finally saw what he really was - _a lightning bolt_.

__

ZAP!

The lightning lizard hit him hard in the stomach. He groaned, feeling his innards squeeze in pain. After impact, Lightningdramon flew overhead and began to fly around the stadium, much to the amusement of the audience, who clapped and cheered. It was a harsh form of entertainment. Hiamon landed on his head on the stadium floor, yet again, but this time, he didn't come back up. He had fallen on the side of his head, on a part near the eyes.

Upon seeing this, the watchers clapped and whooped. Obviously, this sport was a natural part of their everyday lives, and seeing a Digimon fall on his head on cement didn't have much of an impact on their minds. It was just like when a football player broke his leg, except this game was deadlier and quicker.

It took awhile for the people in the stands to see that Hiamon was seriously hurt, however, upon gaining this knowledge, they did nothing about it except point and say, "Look, he's injured!" or the occasional "Look, he's dead!"

He wasn't dead; but he sure felt like it. He couldn't stand up. Not that he wanted to, anyway. In fact, he didn't want to do anything. He just wanted to lie down, and wait until the pain was all over. He'd just take a short rest. A rest never hurt anyone. He closed his eyes, and halted breathing.

The Digimon crowd didn't seem to care; but humans Ryota, Naoki, Miho, Shun, and Yuka were making a plan.

"He's hurt!" Yuka squealed.

"He'll be okay," Naoki assured her.

Miho gasped in horror. "But we can't just - stand here -"

"Come on!" shouted Ryota. "We've got to help him!"

In his Digimon form, Kibamon jumped out of his seat and landed at the foot of the stadium.

"Hey!" the Guilmon ordered, grabbing the megaphone again, "two Digimon can't battle! It's unfair!"

Lightningdramon sneered and looked up at the dinosaur-like announcer. "You're getting very annoying," he breathed, pointing at the reddening Guilmon. Static electricity seemed to come from his index finger (er . . . claw). Suddenly the bolt sat upright, it's narrow edge pointing at the announcer.

The Guilmon screamed in worry, and when the bolt hit him in the neck, he screamed in hideous pain and frustration, screamed until his data floated out of the stadium and disappeared.

"That'll happen to anyone who dares interrupt my battle again!" he warned, pointing a finger at the whole group of Digimon in their seats, who leaned back in fright. He did nothing; though. He put his claw down and snickered at the sight before him: Hiamon on the ground, his eyes closed, and an angry Kibamon on the ground, yards and yards below him, joined by his friends, Mikemon, Jikimon, Mekanorimon, and Sorcerimon. The scene enthralled him.

"So . . . you've come to join your friend, eh? One of you might go check on him. You see, he's down there on the ground. It wouldn't surprise me if he was dead, all that's left is the data departure. Oh well. If you insist." He held out one of his long claws. "So . . . do you want this to be over long, or quick? Most prefer quick, but . . ."

"_You're_ the one who needs to shut up!" Kibamon roared, lunging at the dragon.

Lightningdramon simply held his silver claw in front of him and slashed Kibamon's nostril. The snow leopard Digimon howled in pain, a long, yelping howl that probably made the monsters in the crowd feeling sympathetic, even though it only was a sport to them.

He landed near the boundary of the stadium, near the seats. Some Digimon pointed in interest at the bloody figure on the ground.

Back in the actual battle, Jikimon shouted her special attack:  
"Energy Absorption!" The loud, raspy voice caught the audience by surprise. They gasped as they felt their insides turn upside down as the plant Digimon's Venus-fly-trap arms performed a suction. Lightningdramon knew what to do in case of emergency. He let himself be sucked into the flower's snake-like arms.

The audience all gasped, but didn't say a word, due to the fact that they were too frightened from Guilmon's destruction, except for one brave Digimon, the AeroVeedramon in the corner. He pointed in dismay and yelled:  
"Lightningdramon! Lightningdramon is dead!"

This made the rest of the crowd gasp even louder; for they knew that the brave Digimon couldn't be too far from the truth. When suddenly . . .

__

BLECH!

The sound was uttered from Jikimon, who appeared to be coughing up juices. _BLECH! _again, and out came Lightningdramon. He had tore a hole through one of the plant Digimon's arms. She was now in terrible pain.

Lightningdramon dusted off some liquid from his body, then flew up to the corner of the stadium (not minding the severely wounded Jikimon) to face the brave AeroVeedramon.

The victorious flying Digimon, though brave, was now faced with danger beyond danger. For he knew that even his power could not match that of Lightningdramon, after seeing what had happened to Takumi . . .

"I'm not dead," Lightningdramon said calmly. "But you really thought I was, didn't you? You believed that _I _was dead?"  
"Y-yes," stuttered AeroVeedramon.

"And even after I told you to be quiet, you so rudely pointed and shouted like a baby?"  
"Y-yes, sir."  
"Did I not tell you to shut up?"  
"You - you did, sir."

"And what did I say would happen to you if you _did_ talk?"  
"You -" The AeroVeedramon gasped, shivered. "You - you wouldn't . . . would you?"

"Me?" Lightningdramon looked at himself from top to bottom, innocently. "I'm not going to do a thing. It'll be Jikimon who's going to be doing something." The evil dragon smiled nastily. "Yes . . ."  
At this, AeroVeedramon jumped from his seat and dived at Lightningdramon.

Bad decision.

Lightningdramon grabbed him easily by the leg, to the horror of the crowd. It was no longer entertainment; it was sickening. Everyone felt the same thing in their hearts, but none were brave enough to do anything about it. They watched AeroVeedramon in terror, dangling from the evil dragon's strong arms. He was looking dreadfully helpless, dangling there like a baby. How horrid it was to see this! 

Some of the young Digimon closed their eyes upon seeing AeroVeedramon dragged in the air by the evil dragon, to a few yards above Jikimon's open Venus-fly-trap arms.

The brave dragon couldn't see a thing. It was his own words that led to his demise: "Drop me - please."  
Lightningdramon snickered, and did so, letting lose the leg of AeroVeedramon, and watching him fall, screaming, into the open mouth of the huge Venus-fly-trap, then disappearing down there for an eternity.

Jikimon uttered a sudden sickening cough, but nothing came out of the arms. All of the crowd were in complete terror; this Digimon was a monster. Such a horrible fate was far worse than being electrocuted, as the Guilmon had been dealt with.

Mekanorimon wouldn't stand for it. He hated to see people mistreated; and this disgusting use of murder made his robotic heart boil with rage. His mechanical arms straightened forward, as though he was a zombie, then touched the little red orb on his chest.

"Twin Beam!" he shouted, releasing electricity that seemed to rival Lightningdramon's, but the evil dragon voided it with a whip of the tail, then shot like a bullet right at the robot Digimon, making him fall to the floor, looking like a piece of battered scrap metal.

Mikemon, small as she was, and equally timid, now rose to the plate, pouncing on the evil dragon with powerful force, but she knew that it was silly to do so, if Lightningdramon had voided electricity, he could surely evade a little pounce - a little pounce from a little cat - evolved from a little girl. All confidence, the confidence that had forced her to jump, left her, and instead she began to land, with no target or purpose. The evil dragon Digimon let out a fist and punched Mikemon right out of the air. She landed with a small _PLOP_ on the other side of the stadium, badly bruised.

All that was left was Sorcerimon. His magic staff in the air, he exclaimed:  
"Do you believe in magic? You will soon! Crystal -"  
Lightningdramon snickered, floating to the ground near the ice wizard. He grinned harshly, showing his strong yet evil muscles to the crowd. "As a matter of fact, I do believe in magic." Then he glided to the top of the stadium, beaming at the crowd, and chanted:  
  
"Now I'll tell you what I know

The stadium seats;

And the floors below

Are all just a game

Won't you like to play it?  
Come in, don't be shy!

But if you're not worthy;

Come again; good-bye!

I will take you to a place

Beyond your wildest dreams

Where there is no such thing as good;

And the people are terrible fiends!

It is my humble domain

Where I've lived for years and years

I was banished there by those great dragons;

Who were once my friendly peers!

A world once ruled;

A place once kept;

Stolen; taken away from me!

The place that is sad; the place where I wept

Such a horrible area;

Now let me take you there

Where the game is my own

And the rules aren't fair!

Come along; don't be shy!

But if you aren't worthy -

Bye bye!

Lightningdramon roared loudly, and the stadium seemed to enter a vortex, and Hiamon, Kibamon, and the others were riding along in it; along with the cackling dragon.

They arrived in the area that Lightningdramon had described in his song, the area of darkness, the area where he wept.

Hiamon felt that he could breath now. His snooze had ended. He opened his eyes, slowly at first, until they were completely opened. Or were they? It was so dark. Had he opened his eyes? Was he dreaming? If he was, that was fine with him, because he could still feel a deep pain in his head. It was a few minutes later when he finally realized that his eyes _were_ open, they had finally adjusted to the deep layers of darkness. But where was he? Of course! The stadium. But where were the lights? Why was it so dark?  
_Maybe the power went out_, Hiamon thought dimly, reflecting on the fact that he didn't think clearly after a blow to the head. He lay back down, closing his eyes again; thinking that it was darker with his eyes open, and thinking he could sleep better that way. _Wait,_ he thought, _you can't sleep with your eyes open. Can you? I'd like to try it. Maybe I can sleep standing up, too._

"Ugh - Takumi?" grunted a familiar voice.

His eyes still closed, Takumi replied: "Yes, Ryota?"

"Where are we?"  
"I don't know."

He suddenly opened his eyes, and now he could think clearly. If it was the stadium; where was the familiar noise of the crowd? Where was the others? And - _where was Lightningdramon_?

"Welcome friends!" a familiar voice sounded. But it wasn't familiar in a good way. It was Lightningdramon's. Suddenly a light seemed to flicker inside the dark area, the light hurt Hiamon's eyes, and it took a very long time for him to adjust to it.

He stared around him: Lying on the ground beside him was Ryota. A few feet away, Naoki, far away from him lay Yuka and Shun. Miho lay collapsed on the ground near him. And on the ground a few yards away he could make out the face of an unknown boy with red hair. The boy who could transform into ExLightningmon! But wait . . . that was impossible . . . Lightningdramon was currently flying overhead. What was going on? Who was the boy? He didn't know.

All the others, including the boy in the red hair, sat up and looked at the speaker, Lightningdramon.

"So good of you to come to my little tournament!"  
"What just happened?" Ryota asked, brushing his nose, which was bleeding at an alarming rate.

"I'll tell you what happened!" yelled the brute dragon. "It was so _easy_ to trick you into going to this little tournament. _My_ tournament."  
"You sent us the invitation?"  
"Of course I sent you the invitation! Who else would have sent you the invitation?" Takumi noticed he spoke with a deeper, raspier voice that before. It wasn't quite his, it didn't seem like the Lightningdramon he had been battling with before. "Of course, it was easy . . . too easy, in fact. You foolish children! Walking into an easy trap! Oh well! I thank you. And I thank _you_." He gazed at the boy with the red hair, who was stretching his arms and moving about irritably.

"What - no! Not you!" shouted the boy, pointing a finger at Lightningdramon. "Get away from me - you hear me! Get away!"  
"Oh shut up, _Devin_. You're of no use to me now. You see? I don't have to use your tight little boy body anymore." He glided around smugly, his large wings flapping brilliantly in the light.

"W-what do you mean you don't have to use his body anymore? What do you mean? Speak up!" Ryota ordered.

Lightningdramon sighed, stopping in mid-air. "I don't know why I'm explaining this to you, but if you all are going to help me, then I guess I have to tell you."  
"_Help_ you?" asked Takumi, startled. "Help you, after what you've done to us?"

"Shut up, boy!" the dragon ordered in his raspy voice. "I'm trying to get on with my story."  
"Hmph!" snorted Ryota, best he could, with a hurt nose.

Lightningdramon ignored him, and continued:  
"Years and years ago, long before any of you pip-squeak children or your mommies and daddies were born, I was here. I, and the three other great dragons!"

"The three great dragons?" asked Takumi, sitting up. "Who are -"  
"Don't interrupt me, you nasty little freak! Let's see, where was I. Yes. The three great dragons. Oh, we had a fun time ruling the Digital World with an iron fist! But I had a few issues with them. Actually, I had many issues with them. After a while, I learned that they weren't running the world the way they should be!"

Takumi stood up. "What do you mean?"  
"For the last time, don't interrupt me, or I'll kill you!"

He sat back at this little comment.

"Ah. So there we were, ruling the Digital World. Our areas were divided into four sections: One for Magnadramon, one for Azulongmon, one for Goldramon, and one for me.

"Unfortunately, the other dragons didn't know how to rule! They proposed, after many wars, that all Digimon are equal; no matter what level, what group, and most importantly: what type!"

"What do you mean, group and type?"  
"Oh, you are such an ignoramus. Group! A classification on what type of animal or individual one looks like. Type! There are three. Vaccine, data, and virus. Vaccines help cure programs. Data can be controlled easily. And virus control the Digital World by wiping out the bad programs and putting in the new!"

"That's not what I've heard a virus sounds like," Takumi shrugged.

"Shut up! For your information!" he pointed at Takumi, Ryota, Shun, and Miho, "you're all virus type Digimon yourselves! Ah! An insult to my own kind." Lightningdramon sighed. "I began to make a campaign for virus Digimon to rule more! Many supported my campaign. Some data types even approved of it! Not that they should decide, of course. But the vaccines were totally against it! Completely! What utter filth." He spat on the ground with acidic breath.

Miho and Yuka jumped back upon seeing the gross nature.

"Why can't they see that it is viruses that help the Digital World grow? Vaccines are utter filth, curing programs that have no need or use! I killed the vaccine Digimon who opposed me. Magnadramon, supporter of the vaccines, didn't like that at all! So after the long war was over; she and the other dragons trapped me in this horrible dungeon to rot!"

His rage was building greatly, steam was coming from his reptilian nostrils.

"Well," spoke Ryota, "perhaps if you had been a bit more nice about the whole thing, they wouldn't have imprisoned you."  
Lightningdramon's cold eyes stared deeply into Ryota's. "Are you telling me - that viruses should not rule the Digital World?" Flames started to spurt from his mouth, but he seemed to regain his cool in the next few seconds. "I am not trying to rule the Digital World any more. I am going to destroy it."

"_Destroy_ it?" Yuka gasped. "You mean - all those Digimon -"  
"Oh please. They won't know a thing. They'll only be there one minute, then gone the next. They won't feel anything at all." He grinned nastily.

"And why do you need _our_ help for that?" Takumi shrugged. "Not that we want to be involved, or anything."

"It's all a trick!" Devin moaned. "I knew it! Why - oh why!"  
Lightningdramon smirked, looking at the red-haired boy. "One day when I was drifting in the darkness, with no hope, no light, a boy stumbled upon my way. He got to my world by an invention. He is a time traveler, and a dimension leaper. Very smart, too. Just the organism I needed!"

Devin sighed. "I wish I weren't so foolish! I knew I shouldn't have gone to your dimension!"  
"Just as he was leaving to go back to his puny Earth, I took control of his body. I have been feeding off of him, and with my power I have been able to evolve back to my original state. I sent an invitation to you all for the battle tournament. If I could gain your data, I could digivolve to my mega form." Lightningdramon smirked. "But your data is unneeded. I have downloaded the data of both Guilmon and AeroVeedramon." He turned to Devin, who was sitting on the floor. "Thanks, Devin. But you are not needed in this game. You have served your purpose."  
Lightningdramon flew to the top of the dark world again, and began to glow brightly.

"No!" Devin shouted, the light blinding him.

"What's going on?" asked Takumi, covering his eyes.

"He's digivolving!" Devin explained.

This was so - a figure appeared out of the beam of light. He was just about as yellow as the light itself, except of a more darker, lemony color. He had a mask over his face, a blue, cold mask, with two sharp horns. He had blue armor as well, and a long, yellow tail that stretched to the ground. The glowing was over, and now the area resumed it's normal darkness.

"I have digivolved to ImperialLightningdramon!" triumphed the yellow dragon. "No one stands in my way!" His eyes turned to Devin, who was lying, bewildered and weak, on the floor. "Say good-bye, Devin!"

His armor opened up, revealing a large cannon. "Positron Pull!" he shouted, and a gold streak of lightning hurled to the ground, closer and closer. Devin shielded his eyes from the great horror.

All stared in dismay as they watched the bolt picking up speed, and being hurled to the ground, where Devin was. They watched as he disappeared into the yellow light, watched as the lightning bolt then dissolved, leaving nothing.

Takumi shouted what everyone else knew:  
"Devin's dead!"  
  
_Next time on Digimon Genesis Special Chapter!  
ImperialLightningdramon strikes a deal with Takumi and his friends, but it ends abruptly. Will Takumi make the decision of his life? Is Devin Marsuuki really dead? Find out on the next Digimon Genesis Special Chapter!_

And . . .

One of the digital humans has a deep secret, and will stop at nothing to get what he (or she!) wants. The ultimate treachery, which will lead up to discovering the identities of the Shadow Gang members, on the next Digimon Genesis:  
  
ISCARIOTISM 


	3. Part III

****

DIGIMON GENESIS  
SPECIAL CHAPTER I

REVENGE OF THE DRAGON  
PART 3

Takumi gasped in sheer horror at the previous scene. The thunderbolt heading straight for the twitching body of Devin Marsuuki, the shouts from his friends on the ground next to him, and the cackling form of ImperialLightningdramon as the red-haired boy disappeared under the yellow streak, never to be seen again.

It was only then that he realized he and the rest of the children were disappearing as well. For they had been hit by the lightning bolt as well. They too were condemned to the horrors of death. He held out his hands, his white, fragile hands, and watched them disintegrate. He would have screamed; but he couldn't make a sound. Because his mouth, his entire face was vanishing too. He had no eyes anymore, he could only see an eerie white flash, but his body was no where, his body did not exist anymore, not even as dust.

When he was able to see again, his vision was blurred and he did not know where he was. All he knew was that he wasn't in the dark area with ImperialLightningdramon anymore: He was in a familiar place - sitting on a sidewalk near a street on which many cars hustled and bustled through the rush hour traffic. Near the other side of the street was a small park, where kids played on the swings, supervised by mothers engaged in sweet gossip. The sound of the horns honking and the kids squealing had awoken him. First his sense of sight, then his sense of smell: He realized he was breathing fresh, clean air, and he was neither in the darkness of the night area nor the shouts of the spectators of the stadium. It was clean, wholesome air, with space to breath. But that wasn't to say their weren't people.

A couple of teenage boys walked by, alongside their girlfriends. One remarked, "Hey, look - kid hobos!" The others among the group laughed and laughed.

It was then that he knew where he was - this was the park where his mother sometimes visited. And there he was, sitting on the ground, around him Ryota, Miho, Naoki, Shun, Yuka, and Devin. Their clothes were messed-up, it looked as though they hadn't eaten in days, and they were sweating horribly due to the humidity of the tournament. They certainly _did_ look like tramps, even though they were too young to be living on the streets, especially in their country.

"Where are we?" Ryota was the first one to speak. He brushed back his dark brown hair and peered around at the others, then at the people looking at them, passerby on the street.

"Whoa!" he shouted, realizing what was going on and standing up, to avoid looks from the people. He motioned for the others to follow, and one by one they stood up, Devin being the last.

"Is this heaven?" Ryota asked aloud to himself. Another person on the street sneered "You wish!" The boy jumped, embarrassed. "Where are we?"  
"You're at the park, kid. Next time, try not to have a nappy-nap on the sidewalk!" His friends cackled and left, feeling very impressed with themselves, the superior ones.

"What a jerk," Ryota remarked, dusting off his pants, which had been covered with the dirt of the sidewalk. "I'd like to get him someday."

"Well at least we're not dead," Takumi comforted. "I thought for sure we'd be goners by ImperialLightningdramon's attack. Hey, how - wait - where's ImperialLightningdramon?"

He looked at the others, who were dumbfounded as well.

"It doesn't hurt to try," Yuka shrugged. "I'm sure someone would have seen him, if he was here. Come on, let's ask!"  
"Alright," Takumi sighed, and approached a well-to-do man who was carrying his briefcase. Feeling cowardly, he asked:  
"Have you seen ImperialLightningdramon around here?"

"What?"  
The man turned around and faced Takumi, staring at him in confusion. "The Imperial what?"

"I mean, have you seen a dragon?"  
"An Imperial dragon?"

"Yes, sir, I mean no - it's - have you seen an ordinary dragon?"  
"Is this some sort of joke?" the man demanded the younger one, with a note of impatience in his eyes. "What dragon?"  
"Um . . . never mind," Takumi said, yet again embarrassed.

"Never you mind, either!" replied the man who adjusted his cap and walked off, muttering, "Kids these days . . ."

Takumi sighed, watching as the old man staggered away, until he was out of sight range. "I think I left my brain back in Lightningdramon's world," he said, rubbing his forehead. He had a headache, and being embarrassed and harassed three times in a row had not made it any better.

"Well, at least we know ImperialLightningdramon isn't here," calmed Naoki. "Now we might be able to rest."

Devin kicked a bit of rubbish. "Rest?" he scoffed. "I don't think so. I don't think ImperialLightningdramon is done yet . . ." Sighing, he dropped to the ground to tie his shoe.

"What do you mean?" Naoki asked curiously. "He's already digivolved to his mega form."  
"That's only why he was using me," said Devin, backing to his full height. "He just needed my power. Now that he has that power, I don't dare to think what he might do next."

"He's tough!" Miho commented, looking down at the pavement. "If it hadn't been for your kooky dimension-hopping thingy business, I think he might have killed us all with one blast."

"I don't think he's after us anymore," supposed the red-haired boy. "He said he wanted revenge on the three other dragons, and the Digital World itself. From what he said earlier, I think he's out to delete it all."  
Yuka gasped. "Those poor Digimon!" she wailed.

"Oh, please," sighed Miho, "how will that affect _us_? I mean, those Digimon were nice and everything, but really, if what he said is true, that they'll be 'alive for a second and gone the next' and it wouldn't hurt at all, then what's the big rush to stop him? They're just a bunch of, like, computer creatures . . ."

"Is life _that_ unimportant to you?" Devin sneered. "How about that plant thing that you turn into? Isn't that a 'computer creature' as well? How about you join the other Digimon?"  
Miho crossed her arms at being spoken to in such a way. "For your information, I'm a real person! So what if I'm half and half?"  
"Well, _those_ are real life Digimon!" shouted Devin.

"He's right!" agreed Shun. "Can't you appreciate life?"

"Be quiet, Shun!" Miho yelled. "It's just like deleting something out of a computer. If you're going to whine when some data is lost, you might as well turn your recycling bin into a graveyard for crumbled up bottles!" She laughed at her own joke.

"Recycling bin?" supposed Devin. "Wait a minute! That's it!" Jumping in joy, he cheered, "come on!" He trotted off down the corner, whooping and yelling, not pausing to wait for the remaining crew.

Shun made a face. "What's he up to now?"

"What'd I say?" Miho wondered aloud, looking around in confusion.

The others stared blankly at the corner in which Devin had disappeared and blinked. "What do we do now?" Ryota asked, a somewhat disgusted look on his face. "Future-boy seems to be pretty psycho, if you ask me."   
His friends said nothing but simply gazed at their surroundings. The trees planted near the sidewalk swayed wildly, but there appeared to be no wind in the area. It was odd; very queer, and if one hadn't been turned into a Digimon, thrown into a tournament in another world then zapped back to earth via a dimension traveling machine, it was hard to notice, but things always stood out more when you were a monster hybrid.

What the businessman walking by _did _notice was the sudden drop of temperature, brought by a wave of chilly wind. A man clad in a business suit hunched over and held his hat tightly in fear that it may be blown off.

"My, it's freezing out here!" said a mother who was pushing a stroller, alongside her other child, a four year old girl. "You should have put on a jacket."

"Cold, mommy, cold," whined the child.

"Yes, that's right, it's very, _very_ cold."

The digital humans stood on the sidewalk, puzzled. This strange drop in temperature was not common, though it was not _paranormal, _either, so it didn't call for any force. Something that would be rare enough to think extremely strange. What would cause for such measures would be, oh, say a drop in temperature of perhaps twenty, thirty degrees and a storm on the horizon.

Which, by the way, happened.

The clouds over the nearby trees appeared so suddenly one would think they were conjured by an angry being. Woods curved downward as to let the wind pass through their branches. Thunder boomed, seeming to shake the whole earth.

"Mommy, it's funder, mommy, please . . ." spoke the toddler as rain began to fall on her delicate head. "We must get home. Home, mommy!"

The woman gasped at the storm that had developed in front of her. "Oh my goodness!" She began to push the stroller at a speedier rate, motioning for her small daughter to follow.

The crowd too began to move a bit faster, and although still slow, there was an unavoidable way of panic. Only the digital humans seemed to remain among the people who did not move, with the exception of some hard-working smokers. Very used to this type of weather, they did not let it stand in the way of their plans for the rest of the afternoon.

"Bad storm up ahead," reported a man to his friend, both of whom were sitting on a bench, smoking a cigarette.

"Yep, bad storm up ahead, yep," said his friend, looking up at the dark thunderclouds.   
"You going home early tonight, Toshiaki?"  
"Yep, going home early tonight, yep."

"Won't get a raise that way, Toshiaki."

"Nope, won't get a raise that way, nope."

Ryota rolled his eyes at the men on the bench, then turned to face his friends. "I guess we'd better go home too. We're far away from that dragon guy, and future-boy has gone off somewhere. We'll meet again tomorrow, and see what's going on."

"No, we can't leave now," said Takumi, marveled at the storm. "We've got to figure this out."  
"Figure _what_ out?"

"This storm!"

"Huh?" Ryota asked, startled. "There's nothing wrong with this storm. Just - a storm, that's all."  
No answer was heard, and even if there was a reply, it probably wouldn't be heard over the howling of the fierce wind.

"Umm, right - guys?" Ryota inquired again. "Come on, you people must have led very sheltered lives if you think there's something weird with a little old storm."

Yuka continued to gaze at the foreboding clouds, her hands clasped to her shoulders. A shiver, and a soft voice. "I don't know. I feel an evil presence." 

Ryota laughed. "Yeah, sure . . ." But the thought of it seemed to make him, and everyone else in the little group shiver too.

"Lightning . . ." Miho gasped as the infamous bolts came down from the heavens like a ladder to the sky.

"ImperialLightningdramon . . ." Takumi said, gritting his teeth.

__

CRANG.

It was possibly the loudest thing that Takumi ever heard in his life. A lightning bolt had shattered down from the clouds and pierced a nearby tree.

'Startled' was too small a word to describe their reactions to this split-second event. The tree was soon ablaze having being hit by the sharp bolt.

Miho gasped, and saw what was happening before anybody else did.

The tree turned from an army of fiery colors to a brilliant, crimson yellow, growing brighter and brighter each second . . .

"Cover your eyes!" Takumi ordered, knowing that having them remain open could result in permanent blindness.

Their hearing increased greatly during the absence of their eyesight, but what they heard was not a pretty sight - or rather, sound - screams from all around. A scorching tree. And a low, loud breathing, then a growl.

Takumi gasped. He had heard that sound before - ImperialLightningdramon! With instinct, he opened his eyes and saw, in place of the burning tree, the deadly dragon Digimon.

"Surprised to see me?" the yellow dragon asked in a deep, raspy voice. He stared around at the digital humans, and at the remaining normal people on the sidewalk, who cringed in fear. "Well, not much of a welcome party to the Real World, but I wasn't expecting much, anyway." Breathing smoke from his nostrils, he began to flap his wings, and a dust storm began, adding to the already atrocious thunder and lightning.

One of them on the bench sat, transfixed, at the beast. He stood up slowly, shivered, and alerted his friend. "Toshiaki - it's a m-m-monster! We'd better run!"

"Yep, monster, we'd better run, yep," said Toshiaki, who didn't even seem to be paying attention, as his companion sprinted down the sidewalk, forgetting his briefcase on the bench.

Soon the only people that seemed to be on the street were the digital humans.

"What are you doing here, shark-face?" Ryota asked furiously. "You may get Devin, but you're not going to get us!"  
ImperialLightningdramon smirked. "We can test that little theory." He flapped his wings, signaling his dust storm attack.

"Transform, everyone!" The battle call was executed by Ryota.

"TRANSFORM . . . Hiamon!" "TRANSFORM . . . Kibamon!" "TRANSFORM . . . Sorcerimon!" "TRANSFORM . . . Jikimon!" "TRANSFORM . . . Mekanorimon!" "TRANSFORM . . . Mikemon!"

The six Digimon stood together against the evil dragon.

"Well, well, well!" said the lightning monster. "My lower form tore you apart, I wonder how much damage this form can do!"

Mekanorimon hummed in his robotic voice - "I'm going to bet - not much! Twin Beam!" His vacuum-like arms touched the red circle on his chest, and a wave of electricity was brought forth, scattering the dust and lighting the way for the charging Digimon.

ImperialLightningdramon easily evaded the attack with his muscular arms. "Is that the best you can do?" he taunted. "Come on, I'm getting bored down here!"  
Kibamon jumped high and paused in mid-air. The dark dragon gazed upwards.

"Arctic Arrow!"  
"Positron Pull!"  
The attacks collided, Kibamon using a blue energy and pouring all of his power into the attack, the armored dragon doing the same and using lightning-colored energy. It looked at first that the attacks were equal in strength, but the yellow soon overcame the chilling blue arrow. Kibamon knew that this could be the end, he could no longer muster the energy any longer, he watched as his arctic arrow was rapidly being consumed by the lightning bolt -

"URGH!"  
The cry was heard from not the snow leopard, but from ImperialLightningdramon. Hiamon had hit him in the abdomen with his sharp talons. The thunder dragon cringed and begin to vomit orange flames. The fire dragon landed on his hind legs and nodded at Kibamon.

Feeling confident, the arctic arrow strengthened again and hit the storm dragon on the side of his head.

"URGH!" came the grunt again. The lightning dragon closed his eyes and breathed savagely. This was all he could take.

"Now, now, I'm not here to battle, or to kill any human!" assured ImperialLightningdramon. "All I need, is a little help, from _you_. That's all I'm asking for. You see, I want you to -"

"We already know what you want," Kibamon growled. "You want to destroy the Digital World. And we're not going to assist you in doing that awful deed."

"Right!" spoke Mikemon and Jikimon.

Strangely, a wicked smile appear on the dragon's face. "Hmm. You're a rather stupid bunch, for humans. You're going to help me either way. You can make it the easy way - or the hard way."  
None of the children said a word at this threat.

"Very well," sighed ImperialLightningdramon, though Takumi saw that this wasn't a real, sad sigh that he usually heard. "I will just have to go the hard way."  
"You're going no way!" Kibamon snapped - "Arctic Arrow!"

The evil dragon jumped and barely evaded the attack. "The feather has just broke the camel's back!" he shouted fiercely. "I did not want to have to do this, but you are slow learners. Say good-bye to some of your friends!"

Hiamon grunted. "The only one who's going to say good-bye is you!" He flew into the air, large horn out, ready to jab into ImperialLightningdramon's skin. This proved to be a mistake; as the larger dragon did the same and the head bash ended in Hiamon being knocked senseless to the ground.

The smaller, more good-natured dragon could not see anything, nor think clearly. For a second he thought he was in his bed, asleep, but no, that could not be. The blood that normally rushed to his brain was in a secure prison.

Back to the fight, Kibamon performed an Animal Martial Arts, which ended in him spiraling to the ground.

"Crystal Cloud!" cried Sorcerimon, raising his staff to the air and emitting a silvery cloud which trapped the unjust dragon inside.

Yuka, as Mikemon, widened her eyes. "You got him!" she cried happily, raising a paw to the air and spinning around in a victory dance.

"I don't know," buzzed Mekanorimon. "Looks to me like he can get out."

Jikimon, having good eyesight, was able to see what was happening before the rest of the group. "Yes - Naoki, he's breaking through!"  
"No way!" Sorcerimon shouted, as his opponent tumbled out, flying directly at the white wizard.

"Enchant-"  
_FWOOM._ Sorcerimon's staff was knocked clean out of his small hands, leaving him standing in horror at the evil dragon's mercy. Defenseless, he covered his eyes as the reptile lunged at him . . .

"Twin Beam!"  
Electricity hit the large dragon in the eye, blinding him for a moment.

"Sorcerimon, get out of there!" his rescuer, Mekanorimon, called. "This is my fight now."

Naoki, in Digimon form, collected his fallen staff and stood behind his robotic savior.

"Twin Beam!" Mekanorimon cried again, clapping his machine-like hands together and releasing a gigantic electricity beam at the blinded dragon.

ImperialLightningdramon instinctively jumped and evaded the attack. "Enough of this battle!" he roared, charging at the nearly immovable iron mechanoid.

"Oh, no," Mekanorimon buzzed, sparks coming from his body as the large dragon seized him with both hands and stretched his wings, then fluttered a few feet above the ground.

"He's getting away!" Sorcerimon shouted, raising his staff above his head, then crying:  
"Crystal Cloud!"  
A blue beam came from his half-moon staff again, but this time ImperialLightningdramon roared and the high power of the roar knocked the beam back to the ground.

By this time, the large dragon was above the trees.

"Come back here!" Jikimon yelled, wrapping her vines around the dragon's leg, which proved to be a huge mistake.

"No," cackled the villain, "I think I'll take you with me instead!" With a lot of strength and power, he lifted his leg, sending Jikimon high above the ground as well.

Mikemon gasped. "No!" The feline jumped high in the air, her smooth claws glowing elegantly, and swiped at the rising dragon and his two captives, but alas, they were both far away by now, and she was off her mark miserably.

ImperialLightningdramon laughed, then, with even more force than before, took to the skies, flapping his wings slowly.

"Catch me if you can!" spoke the low voice of the sinister dragon as he sped away from view, high above the buildings, to a faraway place.

It was at this time that Hiamon and Kibamon both came to, and within minutes they had learned of what happened and were growling in fury, wondering where their friends were now . . .

* * *  
  
Takumi tapped his fingers on the table, like he always did when he was anxious. The garlic smell of the Italian eatery didn't help, either. The restaurant was vacant, almost everyone had cleared up after ImperialLightningdramon's arrival in the Real World. It was not the most suitable place for planning how to rescue their friends with the other members of the digital humans, but it was growing darker outside and the one thing they needed was light.

He stared up at the dim light of the bulb over the table in which they were sitting on. He stared at Naoki, sitting beside him, who was explaining to everyone the map of the city they were in, and the best way to find Shun and Miho.

__

Such a little kid, he thought, _but so smart._

Sighing, he rubbed his eyes from exhaustion. It had been a long, long day, and at eight o' clock, he planned to be reading a nice book in bed, not at an Italian restaurant, helping his friends on a rescue mission.

"Alright, now," Naoki explained, "ImperialLightningdramon has hinted that he still needs us, therefore I don't think he would do away with Miho and Shun, and he's just holding them for ransom."

"Good thinking," Ryota mumbled, resting his head in bore.

"With that reasoning, I think it is not very likely that he would be keeping them in a place far away from the Kanto region. If we split up and look for them from there, watching the signals on our devices, then we just might be able to find them."  
"Or get captured ourselves," Ryota observed, sitting up. "We couldn't beat him with all six of us combined. If we split up, we'd be very vulnerable."  
Naoki considered this for a moment. "Hmm . . . good point . . ." He was about to say something more, but a sudden beeping from his device interrupted him.

"Who could that be?" Yuka asked from across the table.

"Devin, probably," was the answer as the eight-year old held up his device in the center of the table so everyone could hear.

A sound from the device. "Are you kids there?" asked a familiar voice.

Naoki smiled, happy that the voice was a friendly one. "I knew that you would call us sooner or later, Devin." He quieted down everyone. The others held their ear to the device, listening intently.

"So, any news?" spoke Devin's voice.

"Yes, lots. Shun and Miho have just been captured by ImperialLightningdramon - he just showed up in the area!"  
Ryota scoffed. "Yeah, right. _Just_."

The younger leader held up a finger to silence him.

"What!?" spoke the voice on the other end.

"Yes, they've both been captured. We put up a -"  
"They're here right now, with me. I found them at the school."  
"What!? No way. How?"  
"They're just - here. They're fine now. 

"Do you know the school?" Naoki inquired.   
"Yes. It's called -"  
The children listened carefully . . .

"East Yokohama Middle School."

Naoki's face fell. "And where might that be?"  
"Our school," Ryota spoke up, pointing at Takumi, then back at him. "Come on, lead the way."  
Within seconds, the kids had all transformed into their Digimon forms - Hiamon, Kibamon, Sorcerimon, and Mikemon, leading the two latter, younger children to their elders' own school. They evolved in plain sight, doing it in private would be foolish, nobody was out to see them, and even if they were, it wouldn't have mattered, because the afternoon had been very crazy anyway.

They arrived at the large school, the Digimon stopping in front of it and looking up to the second floor.

"Miss Andrews' class is up there," Hiamon commented.

"So is Mr. Katsumata's," Kibamon grunted, the former being is strict, balding teacher, who loved to give homework on weekends.

"Where do you think they could be?" Sorcerimon asked, floating to the second floor, peeking inside all of the windows.

The rest of the team waited patiently, hoping that the answer to their questions would come soon.

"Aha!" The sorcerer's signal. Hiamon flew to the top, Kibamon on his back, and Mikemon on Kibamon's, making the small dragon nearly overloaded. 

He "parked" in a position near the window so the two on his back could see as well. They nodded, and after much thought, Sorcerimon broke the window with his staff, allowing Hiamon and the others to get inside and de-digivolve.

By use of the D-Monster, Sorcerimon transformed back into a small eight-year old boy, Naoki Reda.

The classroom was rather small and very dark. Takumi always loved overhead projections in math class - if school was pitch black, he wouldn't mind, it would be a lot more fun than staring up at a dimming light for seven hours straight. He always wondered what the school looked like completely dark., but this was too dark for even his liking.

"Guys, over here!"  
It was Devin's voice.

"Come and help us!"  
Shun's.

"Please!"  
The high-pitched voice was the only female one of the group, Miho's.

Takumi's eyes were able to adjust to the darkness, and within a few short seconds he was able to see clearly in front of him, with only small difficulty. He could make out Shun, Miho, and Devin together. He ran up to the trio, grinning, before he halted and gasped.

The threesome were trapped in a cell!

"Hahaha!" a low rumble came from the far corner of the classroom. Takumi could now see that a light was on - light from the computer screen. "I've been waiting for you!"

"That was most certainly ImperialLightningdramon's voice!" Ryota hollered, as the rest of the group saw what was happening.

The giant dragon cackled and blocked their way to the prison cell. "Don't worry, they're all right here. Oh wait! I forgot a very important part. I'm here as well." He chuckled.

Naoki pointed a finger at the beast. "_You _sent us the message!" he accused.

The dragon Digimon shrugged. "Yep. Sure did."  
Takumi interrupted, confused. "But Devin -"  
"You really think that I've lost all of Devin's human qualities?" He stretched his wings, blocking Devin and Miho's faces. "Sorry. I'm just a spectacular voice actor, and I wanted to show off my skills. Well, it seems to have got you here." He smiled a malicious smile.

Ryota growled. "That seems to be the only thing you are good at, besides threatening other people!"

ImperialLightningdramon shook his head. "I really am sorry, but you guys just didn't listen. All I was asking for was a little help, and you rudely denied it, even after I spared your lives. Some people just don't know how to thank others back, and when push comes to shove, I -"  
"Cram it, psychopath!" Ryota burst. "You weren't very thoughtful about sparing lives when you were about to kill Devin, were you?"  
ImperialLightningdramon breathed loudly. "That's besides the point. What _is _the point is that I need the password. Now. And I know that one of you, at least one of you, must know it."

Takumi gritted his teeth. "Well, you're not getting it!" he spoke, before the other members of the digital humans could stop him.

The large dragon chuckled, showing his ugly yellow teeth. "Well now, taken that way, I'm guessing that you _do_ know the password?"  
The others gave Takumi a rather exhausted look and sighed, a real, deep sigh. The boy spoke the only words that came to his mind:  
"If you want the password, you're going to have to take it!"  
Ryota scoffed. "Here's _our_ point: You're not getting the password, bottom line!"  
Looking sad, ImperialLightningdramon said:  
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwww."

The others jumped back, a bit puzzled.

The lightning dragon spoke again. "I guess that means I'll have to kill your friends. No password, no more friends. That's okay, right?" Disgustingly, he grabbed a lightning bolt from deep in his throat, then pointed it at the head of Shun Oshiro, who started trembling involuntarily.

"Now, give me the password," the dragon spoke. "If not, friend go bye-bye. If you still don't give it, other friend go bye-bye. You get it now."

"Why do you need it?" Takumi asked innocently.

"Because. I already told you. To delete the great dragons."  
"Huh?"  
"The great dragons. You know, this is the main computer. The head computer. It contains the great dragons' data. All I need to do is delete the data. Now, which would you rather have: Friend go bye-bye and feel lots of pain, or four dragons go bye-bye who don't feel anything? If you choose the former, I guess you really don't like your friend." ImperialLightningdramon made a face as though he felt sorry for Shun. "I guess they don't really care about you, then. Is it okay if I kill you? C'mon, it'll be quick, and everybody's going to die someday, why not now?"  
"No!" Takumi shouted, under immense pressure. "Fine. I'll give you the password." He narrowed his eyes at the chuckling dragon, feeling like he had betrayed his friends - betrayed the great dragons who protected the Digital World.

"Excellent," ImperialLightningdramon sneered, smiling and almost rolling his eyes back into his head in his insanity. "Now, tell me what it is, and your friends shall live a good life."  
"It's -"  
"Come along now, don't be afraid," the cold dragon smirked. "It's now or never. Tell me the password, little human."  
Takumi looked down at his shoes. "It's 'Satoshi'*," he confessed, sighing deeply. The great dragons were doomed.

His friends were depressed too, but not as sad as he was. He had failed the four guardians of the Digital World, and now the area he had visited but a few hours ago would be destroyed as well in their deaths. The world would be a place filled with disorder and chaos, and soon would collapse unto itself.

"Thank you oh so much," spoke the evil dragon, logging onto the computer. "Now it's very simple. The great dragons folders are in here somewhere - oh yes, _here_ it is."

Takumi put his hands on his forehead, not from a headache, but from the pain of losing the Digital World through his fingers like grains of sand.

"Now," laughed ImperialLightningdramon, "to delete all four folders. Here's one for Megidramon - next, Azulongmon - now, Magnadramon - and of course, Goldramon. Well, that's all of them. Let's see? 'Are you sure you want to delete these four folders?' Yes, of course! OK. All done!"

Takumi was furious at him treating four deaths as though they were nothing. It was cruel, inhuman - well, not _natural_. It was sick.

"Now for the rest of the Digital World. So lucky it's all stored on this computer! Great dragons done, now we begin with mega Digimon and descend -"  
A sudden laughing from the prison cell caught ImperialLightningdramon's attention. The children were astonished that anyone would laugh at the current situation, and it appeared that the evil dragon even thought it strange as well.

"Who's laughing?" he growled from the large desk. "What's so funny? Come now, I love a good joke as much as the next person, what are you laughing at?"  
Takumi's eyes had quickly adapted to the darkness and he was able to make out Devin, in the prison cell, raise his hand.

"Yes?"  
Devin stopped his laughing abruptly to answer:  
"You're a bit slow, you know. You _really_ think that the whole Digital World is stored on one computer?"  
"Huh?" ImperialLightningdramon grunted. "Who are you to question my intelligence like that, you ignorant young -"  
The red-haired boy interrupted, "I, in the future, live in an age of computers. It's impossible to have the whole Digital World stored on one computer. Data from thousands of other computers are connected and come together to form everything in that particular world. If you wipe out everything on one computer, you'll probably only delete one hundred millionth of the Digital World. It's illogical to think that everything is stored on one computer."  
ImperialLightningdramon looked murderous. "Fine! But only if you want me to. I'll destroy all the computers in the world. Both the Real World and the Digital World shall fall! I may perish as well, but I'll get the last laugh. I _always_ get the last laugh. I -"

Suddenly, the computer that he was using began to glow. The evil dragon turned his neck and gasped. "What's going on?" he demanded, his eyes dancing wildly. "What's wrong with this blasted thing? Somebody screwed with it!"  
Devin was the first to speak again. "Before you deleted the great dragons, I made copies of their data. It's called copy & paste. You'd think a ruler of the Digital World would know that by now!"  
"But how does that explain what's going on now?" Shun spoke up.

"Yeah, that's freaky!" Miho commented.

The computer glowed brighter and brighter, until suddenly four beams of light came from it.

"No! No! I can't believe this! The great dragons!"

The four beams of light swirled around Takumi, Ryota, Naoki, and Yuka.

ImperialLightningdramon looked stressed. "I can't believe this! The great dragons have the power to communicate with the other worlds." His face then lighted up in the darkness. "But I have an idea."  
He extracted from his throat a lightning bolt and threw it at one of the four beams of light.

"Take that, great dragon spirit!"  
But the lightning bolt missed miserably, leaving a mad, mad ImperialLightningdramon, who looked more vicious than ever.

The beam that had been hit hovered over Yuka's outstretched D-Monster for a moment, then entered it. She looked inside of it and gasped in wonderment. "The - the dragon - the dragon's entered my device!"  
The boys gasped in astonishment and held up their D-Monsters, too.

Takumi watched in excitement as one of the spirits swirled above his device for a moment. His eye followed it like a dog follows a chicken leg, until the spirit entered his D-Monster. He peaked inside of the cage of the device. On the LCD screen was the picture of a red dragon, with hazard marks all over his body and gigantic yellow wings.

"It almost looks like an upgraded version of Hiamon," he said happily.

Ryota and Naoki also looked pleased, but ImperialLightningdramon was beside himself with anger.

"That's it! You're all going to _DIE!_" he roared, lunging at them.

The children gasped and ducked, narrowly missing being hit by the mentally ill dragon. After a brief moment on the floor in fear, they got back up coolly without a scratch.

However, ImperialLightningdramon fell out the window.

"Come on," said Yuka, "I'll go and free the others. You three go get that mad dragon!"  
"Right!" the others agreed, jumping courageously out the window.

Takumi fell through the air and felt like he had been in his dream a few weeks ago - flying. But if he didn't act soon, he'd be chewing gum on the road! He pressed his D-Monster, not knowing what would happen. Something unexpected occurred -

"TRANSFORM . . . Megidramon!"

He didn't know how he knew the name, it just came to him, like instinct. Just before hitting the ground, he used his large yellow wings to help him dodge the ground, then he swooped back up the next building, like a skateboard trick he had seen on television. He landed on the roof with the other three great dragons; they had transformed in mid-air as well.

Judging from their D-Monsters that were hanging on their necks, a blue, hazy dragon that was covered from head to tail in a bizarre-looking chain with a horn and a beard was Ryota; a yellow dragon with a helmet and a smaller beard was Naoki.

"Azulongmon!" shouted the azure dragon.

"Goldramon!" cried the gold dragon.

ImperialLightningdramon stood on the roof of East Yokohama Middle School, staring up at the three dragons.

"This adds insult to injury, transforming into my old enemies! How can one forgive this utter blasphemy?!"

Back at Miss Andrews' classroom, Yuka was employed to free the others from their prison.

"TRANSFORM!" she cried. "Magnadramon!"  
She glowed a pinkish color, and in a few seconds a Digimon of the same color with horns and a long body emerged. Her long claws shined, and without much force she was able to break the lock into tiny little pieces.

Shun opened the door and allowed Devin and Miho out first, then exited himself, and after thanking the pink dragon, Magnadramon joined the battle with her peers, the other three dragons.

ImperialLightningdramon turned around and grimaced, staring in hate at the pink dragon. "You!" he stammered. "I'll make sure you die first!"

He charged at her, horn-first, but Magnadramon swooped to the side just in time. The chaotic dragon switched paths too and aimed again, but it resulted in failure. His enemy, the pink dragon was too fast.

Azulongmon, Goldramon, Magnadramon, and Megidramon surrounded him, growling in ferocity at their foe.

Takumi finally felt as though they had overcome the dragon, that his time had come. This new sensation of power had revived his strength and mind. He would fight for the Digital World - he would battle for both worlds.

Devin, Shun, and Miho stood on the sidelines, watching the dragons in amazement.

"They're beautiful," Shun admired, staring up at them in wonderment, "They would look just great on a painting of some sort."  
"Yeah, please!" Miho retorted, though she too was gazing up at them.

ImperialLightningdramon was beginning to understand that he was beat, but he wasn't going to surrender; he was going to go down fighting.

He reached into his throat and grabbed yet another lightning bolt. "Time for all four of you to go bye-bye!" he laughed, holding it high up in the air -

"Quick, everyone!" Azulongmon ordered. "Combine your attacks!"

The dragons radiated their respective colors, then held their hands out, each conjuring an energy ball.

"Rainbow Flares!" they shouted together, releasing their energy sphere at the same time.

ImperialLightningdramon gasped and his eyes widened before the four spheres hit him on various places of his body. His body collapsed, and all that remained of him were the lightning bolt that he had held in his hand, as well as little data bits, which floated to the sky before dissolving completely. The lightning rod fell through the sky, but dissolved before it reached the ground.

The four great dragons glowed a brilliant color, then returned to their respective human forms: Takumi, Ryota, Naoki, and Yuka. The humans floated back to the buildings, and the dragon spirits emerged from their devices before they went back to where they came from: the computer world.

* * *

"I had a great time," said Devin Marsuuki, after showing the digital humans his time-traveling device, which largely resembled that of a motorbike with no wheels. "Thanks."

"Thank _you_, Devin," smiled Takumi. "Without your help, ImperialLightningdramon would probably have finished us, and might have succeeded in destroying both worlds and messing up my future, and your present."  
Ryota, Naoki, Yuka, Miho and Shun nodded in agreement, admiring his time-traveling machine. It was early morning, the day after the events of ImperialLightningdramon occurred. Takumi had invited Devin over to stay at his house for the night, which his mom happily accepted, for her son had few friends and it was a pleasure to have them over. After a much needed rest, the group had met again to say good-bye to Devin. He would be heading back to his own time, stating that he had been trapped as ImperialLightningdramon for months, and he needed to go back and see his family, whom he sorely missed.

"You were awesome out there!" cried Yuka.

"You were too," grinned Devin. "Too bad that your great dragon forms left you."

Naoki shrugged. "I guess it was sort of a one-time thing. I'm quite happy with my Digimon form: Sorcerimon!"

Devin nodded. "Speaking of Digimon forms, mine was left a while back. If it hadn't been for me, you guys wouldn't have to have gone to all that trouble, and you two wouldn't have been captured," he explained, indicating Shun and Miho.

"It was no trouble at all," Miho said untruthfully.

"Well, you all did a good job. All I must say is the future looks bright. It really does! The world I live in is a great place, and I think that a lot of what it is now is thanks to you. I haven't met any Digimon there, yet."  
The children smiled as Devin hopped on the time machine.

"Bye, Devin," Takumi waved good-bye.

"Have a nice trip," said Ryota.

"Thanks a bunch!" thanked Naoki.

"Have a fun time in the future!" hollered Shun as the machine flew away, over the trees.

"Come back soon!" screeched Miho just before the time bike disappeared from view.

Back on the time machine, Devin steered his bike through the clouds. "Well," he said to himself, "it's a pretty good place in the past. But not as good as the future, of course." He laughed. "I'm going back to the future - where they have cherry chocolate bars!"  
And so the machine shined a bright purple color and disappeared from the world of the digital humans. The small device ripped through time and space, and zoomed back towards Devin's home - the future.

__

And that's a wrap! Next time on Digimon Genesis:

There's a traitor on the Genesis Team! Who could it be? Find out in Chapter 20, "Iscariotism"! 

Coming soon, so stay tuned on Digimon Genesis!

*Satoshi Akimoto, in the main series, is Takumi's gym teacher and Miss Andrews' crush. He is lately suspected by Takumi and friends that the Shadow Gang wants him to become a Digimon. In this chapter, 'Satoshi' is the password of the computer. It is only the password because Miss Andrews selected the name and liked Mr. Akimoto. So don't relate the two in any way. Besides, this special chapter is out of continuity of the main series, which will continue after I complete this chapter.


End file.
